Thursday, April 17, 2014

April 18, 2014

"But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins."  I Corinthians 15:12-17


There are many reasons to rejoice over the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I have shared two:

The Fear of Death Is Gone!

The Freedom of Forgiveness Has Come!

On this day, Good Friday, I want to share a third reason for rejoicing in the Resurrection:

The Foundation of Faith Is Here to Stay!

Some 350 prophecies were fulfilled through the birth, the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If just one of those had failed then all of them would have been proven false! In fact, if just one small detail of one of those prophecies would have gone amiss then every prophecies would have been discredited.

But every detail of every prophecy, some given centuries in advance, happened exactly as predicted!

Jesus' resurrection was the most significant event in human history. He predicted His resurrection on several occasions prior to pulling it off. If after predicting it He would have remained in the tomb, He would have been proven a fraud.

The veracity of God's Word depended entirely on Jesus fulfilling the mission of the Messiah. Mankind's sins had to be atoned for and death had to be defeated.

When the sinless Jesus from Nazareth died on the cross of Calvary and then rose from the dead on the third day, He satisfied the penalty for sin and smashed the power of death!

Because Jesus accomplished everything the Scriptures predicted, we can rest assured that the foundation of our faith is firm forever!

Since every prophecy and prediction put forth in the Bible has been fulfilled up to the present day, there is every reason to have full expectation that His word is reliable and prophecies yet to be fulfilled WILL BE FULFILLED!

That's a reason for rejoicing!